We heard Gwen Ifill live last
night at the Paramount, featured by the Oakland Speaker’s Series. She was
impressive, no surprise to the many who watch her on the PBS News Hour and
Washington Week.
However, dismiss the thought
that in a public lecture she might push the envelop beyond the constraints of journalistic
“neutrality” as encoded at PBS. She began with a description of the crazy
Washington scene and how relieved she was to escape it for a couple of days in
Oakland and the East Bay. Her picture of the Washington scene was one that is
widely promoted: Obama and Boehner unwilling to talk with each other, Democrats
and Republicans alike unwilling to listen to each other, all behaving like
spoiled brats rejecting compromise and negotiation.
She spoke sincerely and
proudly about her journalistic values: emphasis on “fairness”, listening to
ordinary people rather than politicians, being open to differing opinions. As
an interviewer on TV, her object is to ask questions and let the viewers draw
their own conclusions.
Ifill’s description of what’s
going on in Washington was “even-handed”, but was it fair?
Equal scolding of “both
sides” obscures and belittles the issues of contention that are paralyzing
government and hurting so many people. Whatever the intention, it tilts the
scales in favor of the GOP’s demand for its pound of flesh as a condition for
allowing an end to the shutdown. So far, Obama has refused to give in to
extortion, refusing to “negotiate” while the GOP-Tea Party caucus holds the
country hostage to chronic government shutdowns.
Of course, whether Gwen Ifill
appears on TV or before a podium in Oakland, she is bound by the constraints
that her job at PBS imposes. A questioner last night asked if programming on
the News Hour was ever affected by fears over threats to public funding. She
answered: “No, never once!”
It wouldn’t have hurt if she
acknowledged that, even as a public speaker, she could not risk appearing to
take sides. But then it might also have helped if she avoided giving her faux “analysis”
of the current crisis.
Still, the audience loved her and with good reason. She is at the top of her profession. Too bad there aren’t more journalists and commentators who can tell it as it is, even when it offends the powers that be.
Still, the audience loved her and with good reason. She is at the top of her profession. Too bad there aren’t more journalists and commentators who can tell it as it is, even when it offends the powers that be.
